The federal government’s Department of Defense established the Internet. Yet Internet content—and the prodigiously profitable businesses built upon it—are virtually unregulated.

Meanwhile, though it never built a single commercial broadcast transmitter or laid a mile of coaxial cable, the government asserts the right to micro-manage the businesses most beleaguered by Internet competition: broadcasting and cable TV.

The stock prices of most publicly traded companies in these industries have cratered in this increasingly hostile environment.

These misguided government policies threaten the survival of local radio and TV broadcasting, through which most Americans receive the bulk of their news and entertainment, and cable, the first real competition for the telephone oligopoly.

The policies also make a mockery of the First Amendment by empowering the FCC—an unelected five-member panel—to determine what Americans will be permitted to see and hear and to what extent and in what form individuals will be allowed to speak to their fellow citizens.

That self-serving politicians and special interest groups on both the left and the right are demanding even more government control over broadcasting and cable should alarm all who value a robust media marketplace and treasure the First Amendment.

Lee Spieckerman

SpieckermanMedia LLCDallas-Fort Worth

Copyright 2008 TV Newsday, Inc. All rights reserved.

This article can be found online at: http://www.tvnewsday.comhttp://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2008/01/01/daily.1/.Please visit http://www.tvnewsday.com/ for more on this and other breaking news concerning the TV broadcasting industry.

About Me

CEO of a company launching a unique, localized, young-skewing cable TV network, Lee is a Fox News commentator, sought after speaker and op-ed contributor on media and public policy issues. Lee has served as a strategic consultant to TV stations, networks, politicians and TiVo Inc. He was founder and president of LIN Productions/executive producer of Texas Rangers Baseball television, where he oversaw what were widely considered the best regional baseball telecasts in the U.S.—including America’s first high definition pro sports telecast in 1998. The firm also created award-winning content and graphics for clients across the U.S. Previously, Lee was a corporate executive of parent LIN TV Corp where he simultaneously oversaw operations for flagship station KXAS-TV in Dallas; his team took the station from last place to number one in key newscast demographic ratings—the most dramatic major market news ratings turnaround of the ‘90s. In 1979, Lee was the youngest staffer on the John Connally Presidential campaign in Washington, DC where he worked with then-consultant Roger Ailes and press secretary Jim Brady.
Lee is active in non-profit organizations focused on foster children.